How to Make Earth (Cycles)

It's been 5 years ago since I created this earth tutorial. And year after year, it's remained one of our most popular tutorials on the site! But since that tutorial was made using Blender Internal (boo!), I figured it was time for an remake using Cycles.

Space Background

If you don't have it you can get Pro-Lighting Skies here. Alternatively, you can just use a star background, and add it as an image texture in the World Panel. It doesn't result in that much of a change ;)

Make something cool? Post it it in the comments below!

I'm really hoping to see some unique twists on this tutorial. Maybe an alien invasion? :P